The End or The Beginning

23 Three Things has been an eye-opener for me. I knew there was a wealth of knowledge out in the World Wide Web, but have not kept up with all the new programs out there. There were a lot of programs such as flicker, animato and live binder that I was impressed with and will definitely make use of in the future. I will make it a goal to keep up with current technology for my student’s sake, as future educator, it will be important to know what resources are available to my students. It would be nice not to have to join all these sites in order to explore them but I realize that part is not in your control. A free trial access to all of the programs used on here with one user name and password would be great. I will be using the RSS feeds to help me keep up with all the new technology advances. I have enjoyed this class and my student will benefit from it in the future.

Thing Twenty Three

http://www.epractice.eu/en/cases/23things

The link above goes to website that states how 23 things was originally created and then shared through creative commons.  Creative Commons is a great way to collaborate with other teachers, share assignments, or modify someone else’s assignment to fit your classes’ needs.  I like that you can build or modify someone else’s work with permission and then re-share it so that others can do the same.

Thing Twenty-Two

Assistive Technology

 I think LiveBinders is my favorite site so far.  For research purposes, this site is a great source.  I wish that I would have know of this last semester when I was writing APA papers frequently.  I created a binder on assistive technology, Intasc principles, and educational websites for the classroom. The Google search feature that allows you to search and view resources and pick the file relevant to what you want was very impressive to me. This would be a great way for students to learn how to sort through and pick reliable internet sources for papers and reports. Teachers could also have sources for web quest or scavenger hunt in a binder such as this to narrow the range of data that students are exposed to at the younger age levels.

Thing Twenty one

My Animoto Video 
I created a video with photos of my children. This was really easy to do.  I can see where this would be a great program for teachers to use. Teachers could create end of the year videos to document things their students have done all year. This was great program and I would recommend to all.

Thing Twenty

“The Worth of a Teacher" - Music written by: Matthew C. Shuman is the video that I chose to place on my blog. As a future teacher, I have a great respect for the sacrifices that teachers make in order to teach our children. Becoming a teacher is a choice each of us has made; we do not enter the profession blindly but willingly. Money obviously was not the deciding factor on going to school for four years to become a teacher.  There are plenty of profession that we could be working towards that would pay better, yet I have many classmates that will be teaching because they want to in the near future. For that I salute you all.

I can see where YouTube could be useful in the classroom. There is a ton of knowledge that other educators have shared on YouTube. Teacher can use YouTube to collaborate and as a resource for lessons.

Thing Nineteen

Visit TeacherPop

 I am a member of several social networking sites, including, Facebook, twitter, and teacher-pop.  The one I use the most is Facebook, because it is a way for me to keep up with  my family and friends that live in other places and is not just geared towards one particular group of people.
 I also like Teacher-pop because it is just for teachers and is a good way for teachers to collaborate with one another and ask questions. I am just getting familar with Teacher-pop but I am sure that it will be a very useful site once I am a teacher.

Thing Eighteen

Social networking is a great way for educators to collaborate. I have had a Facebook account for several years so there was not much new to learn. I use it to keep in touch with my family and friend back in my home state of Louisiana. I think that out of Facebook and twitter, Facebook has the most useful features. Until we explored twitter a few things back, I had never considered using it because I think it is rather random, I am a busy person and do care to know who is doing what or when.  I think that beyond classroom collaboration with other teachers that social media sites use should be restricted to just that socializing with friends and family that you may be out of touch with. There are too many opportunities for kids to act out and bully their classmates which is a big issue facing kids today.

Thing Seventeen

Social bookmarking site like Delicious are a good way for teachers to collaborate and share information with one another.  They can reduce and eliminate some of the clutter that has to be sorted through to find the information that is being searched. I can see using this application while doing research for big projects or for finding new ways to teach units in the class.  

Thing Sixteen

I used I- Google it is already my home page for internet explorer. I use the calendar feature which is great for remembering birthdays of family and friends.  I also have the “remember the milk” app on my cellphone. I use it frequently for important homework assignments and just when I’m going to the store and don’t want to forget something.  When you go to the store with three kids it’s real easy to get distracted and lose your train of thought. I would recommend both of these sites to others because they are so easy to use and help to stay on task.

Thing Fifteen

I found the Wiki idea quite interesting, for my post on APSU 23 Things Sandbox wiki, I fixed a classmates post which had a curse word in it. I am not sure if they posted that on purpose, if someone changed it maliciously, or if it was just a typo. This would be a concern if you used this for a class project for younger immature students being able to track who did what would be really important if using this program for class group work.  This gave me an idea of a group project for the class, the teacher could put writing on there and ask the students to find and fix the mistakes. The options are endless for group project on a site like this. I have learnt about so many interesting things in this class I hope that I can remember and incorporate them in my class later.

Thing Fourteen

I explored Gliffy and Bubbl.us these are both great sites for brainstorming activities and would be fun for students and teachers for class projects. Gliffy has more options for creating different types of flow diagrams. It will also allow you to create and design a room, which I found interesting. Bubbl.us was just mind- mapping and would be great for organizing projects. I liked both sites but Gliffy was my favorite because it had more options to explore and use. I am planning to teacher younger children and do not think that I can incorporate this into my class but will keep it in mind when I do start teaching.  I can see teachers using these sites to organize class events, activities, and fund raising projects.

Thing Thirteen

This is the drawing that I created in Google doc. I can see where student would enjoy creating pictures and writing paper in this program.  There are many cheaper more affordable computer but they usually lack the programing to create documents such as this. Being able to create and use this programs on the web, rather than buying the expensive word programs makes it more affordable and attainable for all students. Students could collaborate on many different group projects, such as science projects by using this online web and each student in a group could contribute their part.
I did my drawing on Google Doc which you can find here: https://docs.google.com/?authuser=0#all for free. Another site that I looked at was Zoho Writer found here: https://writer.zoho.com/home and I did not see much difference between the two site. As usually I just stuck to what I am more familiar with and that is Google.

Thing Twelve

For this activity I chose to set up an email alert for “new on education”. This was extremely easy to do and now I get an email each time something happens that is news worth in the field of education. I can see where this would be useful to all teachers as we need to keep up with the current events taking place in our field on knowledge.

I also like Google translate this would be extremely usefully for ELL (English language learners). It would be a good way for teachers to learn short phrases to communicate with these students in their native language. This would be a good way to welcome them to your class, if you knew in advance that they were being added.  I have enjoyed exploring Google and its many ways to enhance our lives.

Here is a ling to Goggle Translate and Goggle alerts
http://translate.google.com/#
http://www.google.com/alerts

Thing Eleven

To find new blogs to add to my feed, I found http://www.technorati.com/ easy to use. I searched education first here and the results were enormous. This was scary at first so I tried narrowing my search to a more specific topic and the results were not unmanageable. I think with all these sites the more specific you are the better the results you will get. The search program that I was least impressed with was http://www.topix.net/ because this site wants you log in. I would prefer to use a site that does not require me to log in to search it. As a matter of fact, if I went to a site that required me to log in, I just moved on to the next.

I tried to search several sites looking for blogs that use the RSS feed button. One site was not operating; http//www.feedster.com is dead according to other websites, this site has been down for at least two weeks. There are an endless number of ways to find newsfeeds but I am still partial to Google search. It is convenient and easy to use.

Thing Ten

I really like RSS; this feature makes it possible to follow more than one blog without having to visit a bunch of different sites. I find many sites that I run across interesting but I do not have time to sit down and visit them on a regular basis with the newsreader programs that is no longer an issue. These sites are a great way for teacher to keep up with current events, and news that is relevant in their careers. All teachers should be interested in keeping up with latest technology http://www.freetech4teachers.com/ is a great place to do this.

I am going to opt out of the public page on Google reader right now. Maybe I will do it later but right now I just need to focus on my children and school.

Thing Nine

 This sign is honor of my father in-law who lost his battle with skin cancer several years ago. He is greatly missed. This is the link to image chef which is the website I used to create it.  http://www.imagechef.com/.  This site was easy to navigate.  I just pick my colors from a drop down menu and typed my text. I chose to copy the image and save it to my hard drive to make the upload easier because I knew I was going to upload more than one image.

As you can see I used several different image generators on Imagechef.com. The process was the same each time. It has easy to use drop down menu’s and lots of different types of signs to generate. This sign is just my husband's initials with love you inside them.

 

This sign was made using http://www.happyfacegenerator.com/. I clicked on the logo generator and from there it was really easy. I just wrote my text, picked the colors and style using the dropdown menu and clicked preview. Kids would really enjoy seeing their names written in the different styles but as I stated earlier the children I will be working with as a teacher will be a little young for these types of activities. I could see using these for custom sign, alphabet, and numbers for classroom decorations though.

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Thing Eight

I created the picture above using Family Art Studio. This site allows you to create and make art with letters. I can see where kids would enjoy doing such projects, but getting the picture from their site to my blog was not so easy. I tried several different methods before I accomplished the task and I do not think the children I plan on teaching (pre-k to third grade) would be able to do this without assistance. I don’t know if this could be used in my classroom. I can see using it for labels on things in my classroom though.

I really do not like the idea of sharing personal photos on the internet, unless they are for family and friends to view. I feel like it exposes too much of a person’s personal life for the world to take advantage of. It’s unfortunate that we have to worry about how what we put out there will be used against us but the reality is that we do. I am sure I will visit Flickr again in the future when I have more time to play with things like this. Right now between school and my children I don’t have time to truly play with Flickr it’s too time consuming.

Thing Seven

apsu23things, a photo by kendrad30 on Flickr.

This photo is a picture of the china my husband bought me a couple of years ago. I love it and refuse to let anyone touch it much less eat off it. I am scared that it will get broken. We came home from our family’s house one Christmas Eve and he had it all set up in a new china cabinet that I had been admiring.   

My first Flickr experience was not too bad. I did not have trouble navigating the site but had issues with getting my pictures taken. I am a procrastinator. I did not really see much use for Flickr in the classroom, although it may be a fun personal site. I suppose you could do some interesting art projects with the kids using photos of things, not themselves. I do use shutter fly which is another photo hosting service but it is not a public site or at least it was not when I joined it. I joined that site when I lost a bunch of my digital pictures because I had not backed up files. The need to back up your files is a downfall to all this new technology. I had not uploaded my photos in a while and again just last week I lost all my photos when I got a virus on my computer. I hope we learn about some bug prevention strategies while in this course.

Shutter fly is not as public as Flickr, and I am concerned about privacy. There is a risk and that is part of the reason I do not see much use for Flickr in the classroom. There would be an issue with posting pictures of children without their parent’s permission, and even though you could ask for permission there would be a lot of paper work involved.  I think that privacy on the web is always going to be an issue; there are too many hackers out there! That is why you should not post anything you will regret ever.

Thing Six

 Dropbox is an emerging technology that I like. I had the opportunity to use this in a classroom setting and love it. I put files that I am working on at home in it and when I get to school I can access the files from any computer. I was able to share the file with a teacher and a friend to collaborate with them. This site will be useful for class activities because you can prepare at home and not have to carry your personal computer around or keep up with a jump drive to continue a project or use it in another location.  Here is the link if you want to check it out. http://www.dropbox.com/ It is free for the first 250mb of data, if you need more space you can pay for it and they have recently introduced a phone app too.

Thing Five

School 2.0 for me is a way to describe the way all the new and exciting technology can be used to improve activities in the classroom. There are smart boards that can be used interactively with the kids and they really enjoy this. During one of my observations I witness a teacher using a smart board in a daily lesson and the kids were always so eager to participate. It is also a way for teacher to collaborate with one another on activities. The internet is building a wealth of knowledge that anyone can access. It can assist in our effort to become the best teacher possible weather it is with lesson plans or discipline problems. The answers are out there somewhere to help you out.  

School 2.0 is continuing to push our futures towards technology. When I was a child, computers in the school were rare. It is now standard for every classroom to have at least one computer. Many schools have computer class starting in the elementary grades. My daughter who is seven has attended a computer class every year since she started school. I’ve also heard of a pilot program where the school was going to issue computers preloaded with their books to their entire class instead of actual books. This sounds costly to me, but I’m afraid that computers are replacing books, also.

Thing Four

Commenting on someone’s blogs is a way for you to introduce yourself to someone whose blog has inspired or provided you with meaningful information. It could help you develop friendships and allows you to offer your own personal experiences and expertise in a subject. I personally have a hard time putting myself out there and posting how I feel for the world to see. I think it takes a special kind of person to be able to make meaningful blogs that can attract the attention of people all over the world. I have definitely seen some that are worth following if for nothing else for the humorous content; like in Crappypictures.com. This blog has kept many in our class laughing for hours, especially the parents.

One thing that I think would be important for someone who blogs regularly would be meaningful comments. This is not only a means of voicing your opinion but also provides the writer of the blog with feedback. Feedback can provide the writers with a direction for the next post and the inspiration to continue on their blogging path. Another important thing to remember when making comments is to keep it respectful, negative, cruel, and foul language is unnecessary and unproductive. Disagree if necessary but do it in a respectful manner.

To be cont…

Thing Three

Blogs are a nice tool that can be used in many ways. For my classroom, I think I would like to use one for the kids and/or their parents to voice their opinions on activities that we do in the classroom. I think it would provide a wonderful insight into how the children and their parents feel about the quality/quantity of work that is assigned. It would also give them practice with writing. It would be interesting to let student suggest assignments on topics and maybe pick one a week that a student has suggested to give them a say in the type of work that they have to do. I think that kids are fascinated with computer and electronics and any assignment that you give them which allowed them to work on computers and voice their opinions would be welcomed.

There were a lot of great ideas on “Edublog Insights” for teachers to collaborate on projects or to get new ideas for assignments. The list was endless and I’m not sure if what I have picked was on their or not but there is obviously many different ways that a blog can be a valuable tool for teachers, students, and parents.

Thing Two

For my blogger name I used my real name, I ‘m not going to post anything that I would be ashamed to put my name on. I think it makes it more realistic and personal. It is a way for our classmates to get to know us, how we think and feel. For the name of the blog, I don’t think quickly on my feet and I just used the name of the assignment while setting it up in class. Maybe I will change it as I get more familiar with the class and program.  

I did not find setting up the blog to be difficult. It could have been confusing but since were doing it together as a class it was not. I am looking forward to learning about all these interesting things we can do on the computer. Just wish it was not a mac, I may have to upgrade. I've already seen several things, such as, screenshot and photo booth that I really like.

My avatar does not reflect much of personality. I was trying to hurry for my next class and did not see many things that really reflect who I am.  I would need to have three kids tied to my hips for it to really represent me. I will probably change it up a bit in the future.

Thing One

While reading through the “7 ½ Habit of Successful Learners”, I was intrigued by a few of them. The first one that stated “Begin with the end in Mind” would probably be the hardest for me to accomplish because I do not plan ahead for anything. I always know which way I want things to go but I’m a realist that knows “that things never go as planned”. In general I like to have a plan but I realize that you have to be prepared to deviate from your plan and move forward.

However, I am a strong believer in the second habit that states “Accept Responsibility for your own learning”.  I believe that each person controls their own destiny and their own lives. Once you are adults there is no one to blame for your actions, faults or disappointment but yourself. So, if your struggling with something, seek help there is always someone willing and able to help out a friend in need.